Othello Flashcards
AO5: Granville Barker
“A tragedy without meaning”
AO5: Coleridge
“Iagos excuses are the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity”
AO5: O’toole
Iago is the “Machiavellian villain”
“There is no Othello without Iago”
AO5: Heilman
“The least heroic of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes”
AO5: TS Elliot
“Othello does not obtain redemption although he believes he is honourable as he acted accordingly to the circumstances of female infidelity”
AO3: Race
- Animalistic qualities and had a primitive nature.
- Fit only to be slaves - Othello goes against society’s expectations.
- Were often associated with witchcraft.
- The devil was portrayed as having black skin.
- Othello sees him as incapable of villainy because he is white.
AO3: Gender
- Jacobean society was a patriarchal.
- Women were lower than men on the chain of being.
- Desdemona pushes the boundaries of this by disobeying her father and marrying Othello.
- Women are objects of their husband and fathers “Look to your house, your daughter and your bags” “I won his daughter” object - prize
- Most men assumed venetian women were promiscuous.
- Gender and race overlap a lot in the play and several characters in the play believe that black men sexually contaminate white women, including Othello.
- Desdemona understands societal expectations “I am bound for life and education” she is also at times in the play shown as being a submissive character.
- Bianca’s a prostitute and therefore low on the chain of being. Seen as a “fallen woman”.
AO3: Religion
- Jacobean (and elizabethan) society was an era of religious beliefs.
- Battling the Turks - an era of religious war.
- Hellish language would have been shocking for a Jacobean audience.
- Many people believed that black people couldn’t be christian as they were not aligned with god. Therefore the tragic end was inevitable.
- Women were viewed as untrustworthy because of Eve’s sin.
AO3: The Renaissance man
- The ideal man was well-balanced and in control of his emotions. Othello is portrayed as this at the start (Venice).
- However this changes with the setting (Venice to Cyprus) and progresses.
AO3: Venice
- Known for its beauty, culture, civilisation and pleasure.
- It was also known for its sexual freedom which is why venetian women were seen as promiscuous.
AO3: The Seven Deadly Sins
- Foundation of morality.
- Shakespeare employs them as a way of showing faults within protagonists and villains.
- Othello=Wrath, lago=Envy
- These sins are thought to lead to murder, as proved by Othello and lago.
AO3: Jealousy and Chaos
- Caused by evil spirits.
- Jealousy was seen as an infection with no cure or prevention.
- Chaos was the undoing of gods creation, a return to darkness and the break of the chain of being.
- Othello and lago are both overcome by jealousy and chaos.
AO3: Cuckoldery
- This was a fear because it showed they couldn’t control their wife and had married someone with an unnatural sexual appetite.
- Young beautiful wives would have captivated their husbands but were also seen as a target of other men, as Roderigo confirms.
AO3: Tragedy
- The tragic hero has to be played by someone with some kind of power (king, or prince) and they make a mistake or have misfortune.
- The tragic plot is that it must have a clear sense of plot and then a change in the heroes fortune from happiness to misery.
- The audience experience catharsis through the heroes suffering and death.
- The reign of James the 1st was the most prolific period of english dramatic writing.
- Jacobean tragedy’s revolve around an obsession with death, sexual passion and physical decay. Sin was always associated with sexuality.
AO4: Theme of tragedy breaking up relationships
- Macbeth
- Hamlet
- King Lear
- Romeo and Juliet
AO4: Theme of jealousy and deception
Much ado about nothing
AO4: Theme of loss and love
Romeo and Juliet
AO4: Theme of insanity
Hamlet
AO4: The Handkerchief as a token
- The nights tale
The handkerchief is seen as a love token of undying love (wedding ring level of significance)
Theme: Jealousy
Jealousy and Destruction
- Jealousy destroys both Othello and Iago… both male protagonists murderous and violent.
- Jealousy destroys love, honour and nobility in those it afflicts.
Professional Jealousy
- Iago envies Cassio because of promotion, social status and superior manners.
Sexual Jealousy
- Bianca, Iago and Othello are examples. All wrongly believe they have been betrayed by those they love.
Jealousy and madness
- Iago observes Othello “foam at the mouth and … breaks out into savage madness” later her feeds Othello’s jealousy. Iago comments “As he (Cassio) shall smile, Othello shall go mad”
Theme: Race and Colour
“An old black ram is tupping your white ewe”
“To fall in love with what she feared to look on… so could err all rules of nature.”
“O the more angel she, and you the blacker devil.”
Theme: Love and Relationships
Double Standards
- Socially acceptable for Cassio to consort with a courtesan, but it is presumptuous for Bianca to expect him to marry her.
- Two types of women: Chaste wives or whores.
Couples
- Iago is envious and unhappy married to Emilia
- Cassio cannot be seen in Bianca’s company.
Gender and power
By the end of the play, all female characters are silenced. That they ever had power is debatable.
- Only ever seen in relation to male characters.
Love triangle
- Iago seeks to displace Desdemona
Key quote: Emilia on marriage
“Tis not a year or two shows us a man./ They are all but stomachs, and we all but food”
• The female characters are powerless in Othello; they are ‘food’ for their men.
• Emilias cynical comments undermine the romance of the marriage of Othello and Desdemona.
• Emilia reminds us of the importance of not judging by first impressions and appearances.
Key Quotation: Race and Colour
“I think the sun where he was born/ Drew all such humours from”
• Desdemonas positive view of Othello’s race provides a clear contrast with the negative
Renaissance racial stereotype of Othello as a cruel, savage black man, which comes across in lago’s speeches.
• Desdemona’s positive view of Othello’s origins echoes Othello’s own early positive descriptions of himself, showing how well matched the couple are, in spite of their racial difference.
• Ironically, Desdemona is wrong about Othello: he does become jealous, although Shakespeare does not suggest Othello has a propensity to jealousy because he is black.
Key Quotation: Jealousy
”jealous souls will not be answered … They are not jealous for the cause,/ But jealous for they’re jealous”
• Emilia’s words can be applied to both lago and Othello - neither has a just’cause for his actions.
• lago’s jealousy ‘will not be answered : lago’s professional grudge against Cassio and Othello turns into a multiple murder plot.
• Othello’s jealousy ‘will not be answered: he refuses to believe Desdemonas protestations of her innocence.
Key Othello Quote: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed…” (Act 1 Scene 3)
(Our love is mutual not forced)
- Parallelism: Shakespeare emphasises reciprocity of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship
- Alliterative parallelism: D and P plosive. Suggesting the assertiveness which both characters had wanted to make their marriage happen.
- Chiasmus: She, I … I, She. visually reinforces the tightness of their bond as if the two were crossing their two paths. Here it also suggests the subliminal suggestion of Othello crossing his heart.
Key Iago Quote: “We are thus our wills are gardeners: I gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners…” (Act 1, Scene 3)
- Repetition of ‘we are thus or thus’ shows Iago’s belief in man’s malleability and control.
- Analogy: Comparison of our bodies to gardens and our wills to gardeners. We are the sole controllers of our fate and behaviours.
- Polyptoton: gardens & gardeners. Emphasises our actions are always a direct result of our values.
Key Cassio Quote: “Reputation, reputation, reputation!”
(Act 2, Scene 3)
- Tricolon: X3 Reputationz Reflects that honour was above all the most important trait in Renaissance Venice and foreshadows the tragic loss of reputation and smearing of honour will go on to see in Desdemonas wrongful shaming.
- Hyperbolic contrast between “the immortal” and “the bestial” underscores the extent to which Cassio and his society cares about honour without which a person is deemed to be no more than an animal with little value.
- Dramatic irony: while Cassio laments his descent to bestiality he’s completely unaware of the fact that the characters standing right in front of him is the true bestial man.
Key Emilia Quote: “But they are jealous for they are jealous”
- Tautology: jealous .. jealous.
- Metaphor: Tis a monster
- Epistrophe: (repetition of the final word) Itself. emphasises the self engendering nature of envy.
Key Desdemona Quote: “Good night, good night: heaven me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!” (Act 4, Scene 3)
- Antanaclasis: ‘not to pick bad from bad but by bad mend’
(1)bad: vindictive behaviour
(2)bad: the women who behave vindictively - Rhyming couplet: ‘send/mend’ reinforces the firmness of her moral stance.
Key Context 1: Venice to Cyprus
• Renaissance Venice height of European civilization, political savvy and cultural sophistication.
• English would’ve translated Thomas Coryats ‘Crudities’ and Gasparo Contarinis the common wealth and government of Venice’ as a result, defined Venice as a refined. advanced and cosmopolitan hub.
• historical conditions of Elizabethan England weren’t all that unlike
Venice at the time.
• Elizabeth Ist 40 year reign. Marked relative peace. Allowed art and culture to flourish.
• the way ‘Othello’ plays out suggests there is immortality. → lago.
More crude than sophisticated. more beastial than civil.
• “There’s many a beast then in a populous city. / And many civil monster”
• Action takes place in Cyprus → tributary state the Venetians had won over from the Turks.
• shift in setting marks a geographical transition from a carefully manicured hub of civility to a chase ridden nexus of aggression
• Shakespeare → Venice - pristine image of fortress of civilisation. this has outsourced its military base and talents to a foreign land (Cyprus) and to a foreigner (othello).
• Gasparo Contranini in his treaties deems
‘perturbation’ sociopolitical instability, a negative element in Venetian state government
• parallel between the political and the domestic shifts.. Venice is surprising what it’s society needs. A natural outlet of expression. parallel between the Venetian state and Othello the man. The more Venice tries to transfer the uglier base of functions elsewhere. the more its people dark violent essence come out in their dealings with others (lago). The more Othello tries to maintain a faultless persona as a noble warrior with no agenda, the more he crumbles eventvally under the pressure of holding himself up to unrealistic, saintly standards of behaviour.
Key Context 2: Military professional, Cultural alien
• During Elizabeth Ist reign. England actively pursued international trade by expanding her reach into African and Middle Eastern markets → greater distribution of goods and labour exchange across borders. → facilitated more interracial encounters.
• African and Arabic merchants. dignitaries and diplomats were regularly invited to Elizabeth Ists court.
• Shakespeare would’ve witnessed the growing multicultural presence at court.
• Leo africanus’ ‘Description of Arica’ widely read. Contributed to the persona of the ‘moorish other’ in the English cultural imagination.
• landmark event → establishment of the Barbary company.
Granted England exclusive trading rights with Arica nations. Provided England with access to moorish mercenaries → hired soldiers on a contractural basis.
• The fact they were clearly foreigners …constant source of fear and suspicion for native English people.
• Can you ever trust someone whose background you don’t fully understand?
Brabantio demonstrates the ultimate ability to isolate professional respect from personal goodwill towards a foreigner like Othello. Friendliness towards Othello the military man switches very quickly to animosity when he realises that Othello has also become his son in law.
• Despite Desdemona’s genuine love for Othello her tragic light could also be seen as the result of her inability to truly understand her foreigner husband, his passions, motivations and perhaps most importantly his insecurities.
• Othello can never fully be an integrated citizen because his values and modes of behaviour are different or at least deemed to be such.
Key Context 3: From Italian to an English play
- Shakespeare often adapted his plot from existing source texts which were written in Latin. Greek and Italian.
- Othello most likely referenced a short story anthology called Gli Hecatommithi by Cinthio who was an Italian Renaissance dramatist poet.
- Cinthio - motivation of unrequited love to Desdemona to plot against the moor
- By making lago’s motives ambiguous Shakespeare makes his version characterisation more human and more dramatically impactful. Messier but more realistic.
• Why bad things happen to good people and why someone may not like someone who has done nothing wrong… The desire to know and get to the bottom of everything is ultimately the cause of the suffering.
• → perhaps it is wider for us to relinquish this impulse.
• Othello as a humanistic triumph for an English dramatist. Shakespeares adaptation raises the philosophical bar and deepens the psychological exploration of human nature, conflict and relationships
